Dressers are most commonly found, of course, in the bedroom. But their versatile height and capacity for extra storage make them great additions to other more unexpected rooms, too. Here are a few instances of dressers sneaking out of the bedroom and into other rooms of the house:
Here we see a dresser used as an entry table in the foyer, a vanity in the bathroom, storage in the living room, a cabinet in the kitchen, and a bar in the dining room.
Have you repurposed a dresser in an unexpected room of your home? Please tell us how in the comments below!
See also Mat's recent post, Reimagining the Dresser: 5 DIY Kitchen Islands.
Images: Domino via Decor8, Better Homes and Gardens, Apartment Therapy's Matt's Spirited Studio, Apartment Therapy's Jesse's Tuned In Space, B. Chic Design
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I love dressers - I have them in my office, my foyer, everywhere!
I want to put one in my dining room as a sideboard, but they're usually very deep and I don't have that much space :(
I worked up to 8 dressers at one time, eesh! I finally whittled down to just one, my favorite. Because it's so shabby chic cool it's now in my LR, storing candles, candleholders and seasonal decorations. I've created the rest of my decor to compliment it. (I use cabinets now for most of my clothing, no more crammed full drawers and I can see everything on their shelves.)
The dresser I used my foyer worked well.
A great way to update and customize dressers is to change the knobs. It can completely change the feel of the dresser. I'm a design student living in New York City. The prices for things here are outrageous. My mom helped me pick a bunch of cheap furniture from thrift stores, and we dolled it all up. One of the dressers we picked was just horrendous though. The knobs were ridiculously ugly. We looked up glass knobs online and found LookInTheAttic -- they do custom finishes and sizes, etc. Their prices plus their free shipping to anywhere in the US beat the pants off the local prices. I don't know if my itsy bitsy apartment looks cool enough to be on here, but I really enjoy reading these posts for design inspiration. Thanks Apartment Therapy. Keep up the good articles!
I just put a small white dresser in the kitchen that I got off of Craig's List. We reenforced the drawer bottoms to ensure that canned goods and baking pans wouldn't bottom them out and changed out the knobs to ceramic hand painted knobs that match the vintage tiles on the counter tops and back splash.
It adds tons of storage and counter top space to my uber small kitchen, I LOVE IT!
I've been trying to convince my husband that putting dressers anywhere is a good idea... now that I can show him this post - maybe he'll believe me!
i have a small three-drawer dresser in the dining room for my kids' art supplies, since they do that stuff at the table. it's great!
I've got one in my sitting room that we use to store dvd's, computer games, random pieces from around the house that don't have a home... and on top I've done a little "bar". I've seen them used in a bathroom to store towel and additional toiletries... so you don't have to stick them just in the bedroom, if you think out of the box they're handy.
We've utilized two toddler dressers with great success (we have no children). The first is an enormous Oeuf dresser/changing table that we have in the dining room. The top is recessed with a tray that can be removed - and the four drawers are ridiculously deep and roomy. It allows us to have a gift wrap/stationary drawer as well as space for chargers, napkins, placemats, serving pieces and bowls, storage containers - it's amazing. It was a gift from a client who was leaving the country - we could never have afforded it.
The second is a Craig's List find. We'd been looking for something that could serve as a bar, but it had to fit within a specific area. I looked through catalogs and online for months before stumbling upon the perfect toddler dresser that fit the space requirement exactly. Three drawers on the left hold bar gear, candles, stirrers, cheese knives, etc. and two deep shelves behind a door on the right hold booze, pitchers and mixers. The sellers actually delivered it and I hired someone to paint it the same white of our newly painted kithen. Nothing beats a dresser for storage - anywhere in the house!
I have a wonderful yard sale find in my kitchen. I love standalone pieces instead of cabinets in the kitchen (a lot more economical too)
Boyfriend moved in, needed a 2nd dresser which would've just made the sleeping area look cluttered. I found a beautiful grainy dark wooden dresser with long drawers, burnished metal pulls and legs that just appears to float on my bamboo flooring. It resides in the living area, under my wall mounted flat screen. Boyfriend was weirded out by putting a dresser in the living room but I've received so much compliments on that piece and how it actually made the space look bigger (compared to the low media shelf that was there prior). Because the drawers are one long drawer (versus 2 on each row), would also be great storage for gift wrapping.
I've also used dressers in the home office for storage.
Boyfriend moved in, needed a 2nd dresser which would've just made the sleeping area look cluttered. I found a beautiful grainy dark wooden dresser with long drawers, burnished metal pulls and legs that just appears to float on my bamboo flooring. It resides in the living area, under my wall mounted flat screen. Boyfriend was weirded out by putting a dresser in the living room but I've received so much compliments on that piece and how it actually made the space look bigger (compared to the low media shelf that was there prior). Because the drawers are one long drawer (versus 2 on each row), would also be great storage for gift wrapping.
I've also used dressers in the home office for storage.
Boyfriend moved in, needed a 2nd dresser which would've just made the sleeping area look cluttered. I found a beautiful grainy dark wooden dresser with long drawers, burnished metal pulls and legs that just appears to float on my bamboo flooring. It resides in the living area, under my wall mounted flat screen. Boyfriend was weirded out by putting a dresser in the living room but I've received so much compliments on that piece and how it actually made the space look bigger (compared to the low media shelf that was there prior). Because the drawers are one long drawer (versus 2 on each row), would also be great storage for gift wrapping.
I've also used dressers in the home office for storage.
no clue why it posted 3 times but my sincere apologies to those easily annoyed
Brings back memories....I found a French Provincial type dresser(without all the usual curly-ques) a few years back, and I painted it a pinky-peachy color, and dribble/dropped black and white paint on top of that color. Then I painted all the trim a nice glossy black. It was gorgeous! I was so proud of it, I snagged everyone (almost) in my apt complex to come and see it! After that, and another entertainment center that I rescued from our complex dumpster(I have NO shame) my resident manager named me Mrs. Levitz (after the furniture company)
Another space saving thing is metal cabinets. They are lighter to move and I have one that I had in my sign shop. I dragged it into my bathroom and painted it and my paints are still at the bottom, but the top shelves hold my knickknacks.I also have a metal wardrobe that i added extra shelves to, and it holds most of my fabric. It's all about improvising!
I use a HUGE 6 drawer dresser, which I inherited, as a sideboard. All we did was remove the mirror (also HUGE). Keep tons of stuff there.
I was just looking up dressers in the Kitchen. Because our space is small and I don't want a sencond table in there. We already have one in the small dining room. So I thought the space could hold a dresser that I could keep dishclothes, tablecloths & runners, charger plates, serving spoons... And then keep my blender on top for making my green smoothies or my microwave.